In 2004, This 22-Year-Old College Student Vanished After Meeting A Man At A Party
After growing up in Indianapolis, Indiana, alongside her eight siblings, Molly Laura Dattilo went on to become a scholarship runner at Eastern Kentucky University.
In the summer of 2004, the 22-year-old also enrolled in summer classes at Indiana University– Purdue University Indianapolis and stayed with her brother on the west side of the city at Westlake Apartments.
At the same time, Molly took vocal lessons and was eagerly preparing for an “American Idol” audition later on in the summer.
Yet, on July 6, 2004, Molly’s bright plans for her future were pushed aside after she strangely disappeared.
That day started off like any other Tuesday. Molly first attended some classes before getting some shopping done. Then, at about 7:00 p.m., she walked to a Wendy’s close to her brother’s apartment and dropped off a job application.
While strolling to Wendy’s, Molly did run into one of her brother’s friends, and the pair chatted briefly. Later, that same friend would detail how Molly did have her cell phone at the time they ran into each other.
That same night, Molly then went to a party hosted at the Westlake Apartments complex. While there, she met a guy named John E. Shelton and later left the party with him.
Together, she and John went out on the complex’s retention pond in a rowboat before visiting a nearby Taco Bell to grab dinner.
By 11:00 p.m., Molly and John wound up at Thornton’s gas station, which was located approximately three miles from Taco Bell. And at that point, Molly tried to use the gas station’s pay phone to contact a friend.
Facebook – pictured above is Molly
As soon as Molly’s friend answered, though, the line got disconnected. That was the last time anyone aside from John ever saw or heard from Molly again.
Molly was not reported missing immediately because, apparently, it was not unusual for her to be out of her brother’s apartment. After all, she was known to have a busy schedule and active social life.
Nonetheless, after she did not return home for two days, Molly’s brother contacted the police on July 8, 2004, to report his sister missing.
In the beginning, authorities did not immediately launch an investigation since they believed Molly might have gone away on her own. However, once investigators discovered that most of Molly’s belongings were still at her brother’s apartment– including her cell phone, money, ID, bank card, and vehicle– they started to wonder if foul play had been involved.
Molly’s phone being at her brother’s apartment was specifically puzzling since she reportedly had the device on her while dropping off her job application at Wendy’s. So, either she or someone else had to have returned to her brother’s apartment with the cell phone.
Since valuable time was lost early on in the investigation, however, authorities were never able to identify a suspect or narrow down Molly’s whereabouts. That’s why her loved ones sprung into action and started raising awareness about Molly’s case in the media.
Molly’s family also advocated for a new law that would require investigators to act immediately in adult missing person cases when the missing person is determined high risk.
Known as the Molly Dattilo Law, this legislation was enacted in 2007 and updated in 2013.
And in Molly’s own investigation, her family was convinced that John E. Shelton– as well as his father, Edward Shelton– had been responsible for Molly’s disappearance.
So, despite authorities not being prepared to bring criminal charges against John, the Dattilo family filed a civil suit against both John and his father, Edward. This resulted in the Dattilos being awarded close to $3.5 million in damages.
Still, Molly’s loved ones are not confident they will ever actually receive the funds since John E. Shelton is in prison and his father, Edward’s, whereabouts remain unknown.
Nonetheless, the Dattilo family is glad they were able to receive some semblance of justice for Molly.
No criminal charges were ever filed in her case, however, and in 2017, Molly was declared legally dead.
Despite that, Molly’s family hopes that they will locate her remains one day in order to properly lay her to rest. Additionally, they hold onto the hope that a criminal conviction will pan out.
At the time of her disappearance, Molly was five feet tall, weighed 100 pounds, and had light brown hair and hazel/green eyes. She also had a slightly deformed left thumb and a small birthmark on her right elbow.
If you have any information regarding Molly’s disappearance, you are urged to contact the Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at (317) 262-8477.
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